


No more will my green sea go turn a deeper blue

by UlsPi



Category: The Witcher (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Curse Breaking, Fairy Tale Elements, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia Loves Jaskier | Dandelion, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Jaskier | Dandelion Loves Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia, Love Confessions, M/M, True Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:33:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27387235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UlsPi/pseuds/UlsPi
Summary: Geralt is cursed, and Jaskier can think of nothing better than to offer himself instead of Geralt to bear the curse. Now everyone hates Jaskier, even Geralt.---"Lift the curse," Jaskier asked calmly."I won't. It can't be lifted. My magic isn't that simple. I was refused by the Chapter, you know, for being an Elf, for being better just because I was born so…""Lift the curse," Jaskier repeated."I won't. I can't." The mage shrugged. "What I cursed him with, it's something primary, something basic. Can't trick the chaos again… it's a work of art, you know, my curse. Pity you can't appreciate it, brother.""He's my everything," Jaskier replied serenely. "You robbed him off his purpose, off his living. He'd never killed someone without a reason. You know it…""Yes, but he's always been guided by the human standards," the mage argued. "He makes sure the likes of you and me perish…""Lift the curse!"
Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion
Comments: 25
Kudos: 289





	No more will my green sea go turn a deeper blue

**Author's Note:**

> Should be read to Paint it Black.

The nature of the curse was such that it took quite much time for both Geralt and Jaskier to realise there had been one. After all, the malevolent mage had been chased away from the village he had been tormenting. Whatever he was mumbling as Geralt was chasing him away got lost to the posterity, at least for a while. 

Jaskier wasn't there as the curse was cast, so it took him a few more months to pull it from Geralt. 

In short, everyone now hated Geralt, which wasn't exactly a new thing, but Jaskier still prided himself about his ability to turn the proverbial tides. 

It soon became clear that the world hated Geralt so much, that they wouldn't even allow Geralt to fight any monsters. The cruellest part of course was that Geralt was attacked and cursed everywhere, while Jaskier remained a welcomed guest. 

Not that Jaskier would ever accept anything denied to his witcher. 

They built a kind of home in the woods. Geralt spoke of it terribly, but for Jaskier it was indeed a home, because when he returned from a nearby town with food and fresh clothes and spices and herbs, Geralt was waiting for him by their makeshift refuge in a cave.

After a year it turned into a routine. 

Jaskier would mount Roach and ride into a town which, according to Jaskier, had to be only a day away. Jaskier would play there, earn some coin, stay the night, so that in the morning he could make it to the market and buy all the essentials. 

Anytime Geralt tried to show up by Jaskier's side, he was chased away with stones and curses. Jaskier insisted he couldn't risk Geralt's well-being. 

Every time Jaskier rode away, Geralt was sure he'd never see the bard again. It was different now. Before Jaskier had followed a hero, albeit reluctant, and now Jaskier was sharing a cave with someone so terrifying that any monster appeared to be a better option. 

Jaskier always came back, though. He brought food and the news and anything Geralt might have been able to ask, had he known how to ask for something in the first place. Jaskier had been traveling with the witcher for a long time, so he took some liberties here and there, but every liberty was about making Geralt more comfortable, or their makeshift home more home-like. 

Jaskier discovered quite a big town only a day away one day. What a terrible sentence, Geralt thought, when Jaskier relayed him the news. His chattery bard wouldn't have ever allowed for such a plain sentence. But instead Jaskier promised he'd be back in a week, with much food and anything else Geralt couldn't hunt by himself. 

Per usual, Geralt didn't believe him, and per usual, Jaskier smiled at Geralt as if Geralt had been the most beautiful, incandescent thing to have ever graced the ground. 

Jaskier intended to spend a week in the town singing and playing his lute. He had become the most famous bard on the Continent, so his hopes were quite high, if he said so himself. 

He tried to sleep only a little, so that he could play everywhere, earn as much as possible. 

So it came as no surprise - mostly because he was too tired for surprises - when a handsome young man tried to hit on him and made no mystery of his involvement in Geralt's curse. Jaskier turned him down swiftly - only to pin him against the nearest wall as soon as the opportunity presented itself. 

"What the fuck did you do to my witcher?" Jaskier hissed. He had some spare strings with him, per usual, and he had one of those wrapped tightly around the mage's neck.

"Nothing special!" The mage raised his hands. Jaskier hated that image of false humility and self-righteousness. 

"Be more specific!" Jaskier encouraged. "Everything about him is special and I sang my lungs out to make sure  _ everyone  _ sees it. What is this talent of yours that can overthrow mine?"

The mage laughed. "I am an Elf, viscount of Lettenhove, the son of an Elf and a human, the most famous bard. I think you and I both know we deserve revenge. Your mother left you to hide in the woods, amongst her people who'd never accept her after she had fallen for a human… She would have been there to raise you, had it not been for the humans. Yet, you chose to follow someone who hunts and kills us… Don't you think it's a fitting punishment?" The mage was flirting, and Jaskier was having none of it.

"I followed Geralt of Rivia. That's all. What have you done?"

"I just made sure that everyone sees him for the monster he is." The mage laughed. It made the string Jaskier had been holding around his neck, dig deeper into his skin, so he chocked. 

"Lift the curse," Jaskier asked calmly. 

"I won't. It can't be lifted. My magic isn't that simple. I was refused by the Chapter, you know, for being an Elf, for being better just because I was born so…"

"Lift the curse," Jaskier repeated.

"I won't. I can't." The mage shrugged. "What I cursed him with, it's something primary, something basic. Can't trick the chaos again… it's a work of art, you know, my curse. Pity you can't appreciate it,  _ brother. _ "

"He's my everything," Jaskier replied serenely. "You robbed him off his purpose, off his living. He'd never killed someone without a reason. You know it…"

"Yes, but he's always been guided by the human standards," the mage argued. "He makes sure the likes of you and me perish…"

"Lift the curse!"

"I can't. It's primary. My best yet. If there's someone willing to carry it for him, then so be it, but really, are you indeed suggesting there's someone who'd offer their ability to be loved for a  _ witcher _ ?"

"I am willing. Lift the curse. Pass it onto me. Let me be hated. My Geralt is beautiful and kind, my Geralt is everything a living thing can aspire to be."

"You? Jaskier, you thrive on love and appreciation. You won't be able to survive…"

Jaskier tightened his hold.

"Alright, alright… so… alright. You have it now. Everyone hates you!" The mage spat at Jaskier and disappeared.

Jaskier was surprisingly alright with being chased away from the venue he had been invited to sing at, and he convinced Roach to carry him back to Geralt, although even Roach had to stop several times… It was indeed a very hard way back. 

\---

Geralt couldn't calm down. Damn meditation, damn everything, he couldn't calm down, couldn't accept that something had happened to his bard while he had been hiding in the woods, in their cave, their home…

He saw Roach first, then he noticed something disgusting climbing off of her.

"Stay put!" Geralt threatened. "Where is the bard?"

The thing snarled at him, but Geralt couldn't be bothered. He approached it, the foul terrible thing that dared to ride Roach and carry Jaskier's lute on its disgusting back. 

"What have you done to him?" Geralt demanded, but his voice was breaking. For all his anguish, for all his mutations he couldn't bring himself to touch the thing in front of him.

"What have you done to my little lark, to my songbird?" Geralt's voice broke. "What have you done to him? What…"

The thing just dropped something heavy to the ground and ran for its life. Smart thing.

Geralt threw up, although he hadn't eaten a morsel since Jaskier left. 

But he crawled and made his way to Roach, who was weeping and whinnying. There was a purse full of coin and Jaskier's lute. 

Geralt could do nothing but wail at the young moon that Jaskier would have waxed poetic about to no end. The stench of the creature seemed to be strong enough for Geralt to follow it, but he couldn't follow it - he couldn't breathe, couldn't move… After three days of chasing he returned to their cave, to all the smells of Jaskier, of his care, of his… 

Geralt packed quickly. Roach seemed to be wistful and melancholic. "You're a Witcher's horse, Roach, what is it… I know, I miss him too." Geralt admitted it with a sigh. "We'll find him, alright? We'll find him and we'll tell him, I swear. I'll tell him… I should have told him a long time ago."

Roach whinnied again. Geralt couldn't mount her so he followed the stench of the creature, however weak it had become. 

\---

After a few weeks Geralt realised that he couldn't follow the smell of the creature. He ventured into the town where Jaskier had played last - and no one paid him any mind, and they couldn't remember the bard. They mourned him and they missed him and they cursed him for never showing up, but no one knew a thing about him. 

Geralt could feel the stench from the coin that the creature had left him, so he didn't touch it. There were enough contracts for him, suddenly. Geralt earned much and had a room and a bath waiting for him, but it meant nothing without Jaskier by his side. 

\---

Jaskier was soothing, his presence was soothing, or so Geralt began to think the first time they parted for winter. Without Jaskier next to him, Geralt thought and overthought, drowned in his melancholy and anger and desolation. Had Geralt been a dragon, he wouldn't have settled for anything less than the sun for his hoard… Jaskier was the sun, warm and alive and caring. 

Geralt had lost him every year and never managed to get used to the dark silence following the bard's departure. When Geralt lashed out at him, that silence was so intensely dark it seemed to devour everything. 

And now that silence was stenching. 

Geralt kept looking for Jaskier, but as the time went by, he lost all hope. He missed Jaskier so much he couldn't bear any reminders. He left the lute with Yennefer when their paths crossed again. Yennefer appeared to be shocked. 

"What, that puppy didn't leave you after all?"

"He did. I found him and he'd been obnoxious about it for an entire week," Geralt told her fondly. 

"You apologised?" Yennefer couldn't believe her ears. 

"I did. But I lost him anyway." He refused to elaborate. Yennefer would mock him and Jaskier, and Geralt couldn't let her, not now. 

He went and found his Child Surprise. They got along well, they traveled to Kaer Morhen, Yennefer joined them. The dark silence where Jaskier had used to be took the form of Geralt's shadow, never leaving him, even in the dark of the night.

His brothers started to come back, telling stories about a creature that was so foul, so hideous, even a Witcher couldn't come close. Eskel was puzzled and hoped to find his answers in the books, Lambert just wanted to wash the feeling down with as much moonshine as he could make. 

Geralt wanted to leave immediately. 

Saddling Roach, he remembered he had a daughter now, so he moved to get back inside and talk to her, and bumped into Yennefer. 

"Tell me what happened. I want to help, I really do! Did you know Jaskier had come to Cintra every fucking winter to befriend and support her?"

In the dark, even in the dark Geralt could see Yennefer's eyes glowing with righteous anger and so much sympathy… What a soul she had, underneath all the pain and rage the world had dealt her!

"I was cursed," Geralt began. "I was cursed, and we had a cave in the woods. We lived there. No one would let me even hunt their monsters, but he…" His voice broke, and he didn't care about any barriers he had been holding for so long, didn't care about a thing. "My little lark… he stayed. He went to nearby towns to sing and get us some food. I was sure he'd never come back every time he left… Then he went to a big city… and what returned upon Roach…" He sobbed. "It's him, isn't it? It's him, Yen, he took my curse, he turned into… my beautiful, bright songbird, cheery and ridiculous… he… I didn't want to think it. That… creature. It left me his lute and money and food, and I wasn't chased away anymore… and he disappeared… I tried… I looked for him…"

Yennefer grabbed his shoulder. "Go fucking get him. Get him back. I don't care if you can't breathe by the end of it, but bring him here and I'll cure him, even if I can't breathe by the end of it. I'll stay here. With Ciri. It's alright, she's safe here. Go… go save that idiot, Geralt."

Geralt held her. 

"We're bound by Destiny or some such shit, but… I'll find you, if you call me, and please, call me. Even to me… And I don't like him… even to me… to think he's alone out there, hated and rotting alive… I wouldn't wish it upon anyone."

Yennefer held Geralt back. 

\--

Despite the snow and blizzard, Geralt made it down from Kaer Morhen in no time… Or he was just in haze, terrified of his own fear, terrified of choosing to overlook what he had felt the moment that creature… Jaskier… laid his gifts in front of him and ran away. Jaskier had never been afraid of Geralt, but it had taken so little for Geralt to be afraid of Jaskier. 

Geralt followed the rumours as he traveled, all of them the same - a creature so foul that no one could bear to be anywhere near it… It didn't kill, didn't hunt, didn't hurt anyone, it was just far too terrible for anyone to tolerate that misery and pain. They all described it differently, but it was always the thing the people hated the most, their deepest fears, the scariest images that could haunt their dreams. 

It was strange, Geralt realised, that to Geralt it appeared as a monster. His own deepest fear was that one day Jaskier would leave to never return, and perhaps he should have concentrated on that from the start. After all, he had driven Jaskier away, refusing to see behind the stench and horror of the apparition before him. 

\--

It was an abandoned fortress, decrepit and small, the first on the way of the Nilfgaardian forces. It hadn't even been properly defended - the people just had abandoned it and ran. 

Geralt forced himself to move. He had left Roach behind, he had had to, she had refused to move any further, and every cell in Geralt's body had been refusing to move the closer he came to the creature. To Jaskier. It had to be Jaskier.

He moved slowly, overcoming himself at every step, throwing up until there was nothing left but bile and lightheadedness.

The fortress was dark, its walls covered in slime and decay. And something was moving there, behind the walls, in the nooks and deadends.

"You shouldn't be here," a clear voice suddenly said. "I can't even bring you water without making it putrid… Please, leave. I don't want you to die on me. Don't want you to be so disgusted with me. Please… Please, Geralt." 

The voice moved away.

"Little lark?.. Jaskier, it's you, it has to be you!" Geralt forced himself to follow the creature. "And if it's not you… then where is he? I miss him, I… I miss him. Miss you, Jask, come back to me, whatever you are."

"I can't," said the voice. "You're barely standing, Geralt, I'm… it's alright, my love. I wouldn't have accepted anyone hating you. You're beautiful, and you're my everything. I'm fine, Geralt. Go…"

"I found Ciri. You had been visiting her. You bastard, you noble, wonderful bastard… Jaskier, please, come out."

"You know…" The voice moved away, clear and untouched. "To me you've always been beautiful, the best there is, curse or no curse. But you see me just like everyone else does. You can't save me, Geralt, not this time…" The voice rushed closer. "And it's alright, darling, it is. I'd have done it all over again. All for you… my life, my love, my everything. My poor darling, how did you survive even a minute of it?.. Maybe this time I saved you. Funny, isn't it? A bard, a nuisance like me, saving you…" 

"Jask… Little lark, you were never a nuisance. You were… you have been everything worth saving, everything worth walking the Path for… Tell me, how I can break it… And if you don't know, I'll take you back with me, Yen will help, she swore it to me, she swore to me to save you."

"I owe her enough as it is…" 

The creature was very close suddenly. Geralt bent over, chocking on his breath.

"Love… no." The voice retreated. 

"Jask… no, don't leave me! I was always afraid you'd leave me! Don't leave me… not you."

"Love, I won't let you…"

Geralt refused to breathe and stood up. He followed the voice and squelching steps, determined to be close again. 

"I don't care. I  _ must  _ be near you. We must be together, little lark. My little nuisance, my ridiculous bard, come to me…" He slipped on something - then the stench was so close Geralt was sure he'd collapse. Something was holding Geralt up, supporting and  _ caring.  _

"So sorry, my love… couldn't let you…"

Geralt felt himself rolling inside, he was moving like a worm now. He grabbed onto the creature and pressed himself to it. 

"Jaskier… Jaskier…" He held tight and true. The creature was struggling against him, but it could do nothing, it didn't want to, perhaps. "Yen," Geralt growled. "Yennefer!"

\--

Geralt came to in his room, in his bed. He sat up. It couldn't have been a dream, it couldn't have, it couldn't have…

He looked around. 

And there he was, sleeping quietly by Geralt's side, beautiful, soft, mouth slightly open, drool pooling on the pillow, a crease of worry on that fair brow. 

"Geralt… no. No, no, leave me… leave…"

Geralt leaned in, brushed a lock of hair off of Jaskier's face. "It's alright, little lark," he whispered. "It's alright." He pressed a kiss to Jaskier's cheek, and once the bard returned to his peaceful slumber, Geralt stood up. 

"You did it all yourself, you know," Yennefer said from an armchair by the fire. Geralt was certain it hadn't been there before. "When I arrived, you were holding on to him, and he was wailing that he had killed you… so dramatic, you both." She stood up. "Proud of you," she concluded. "Proud of him. He'll be a good parent to Ciri." With that, she left.

Geralt sighed. 

He got dressed and walked down to get some food, for himself and for Jaskier. 

Jaskier was still asleep when he came back. 

Geralt remained close to him through the day. It was almost dark when Jaskier finally stirred - and rushed to move away from Geralt. The witcher caught him and pulled him into an embrace. 

"It's you, my little lark, my beautiful idiot. It's you. I wanted to tell you, I had to tell you sooner…" Geralt pushed Jaskier back so that he could look at him saying it. "I love you, Jaskier. I love you. Stay with me."

Jaskier was perhaps sobbing and crying and swearing, but he was still holding on Geralt, so it couldn't be so bad. 

It would never be bad again. 

**Author's Note:**

> Toss a comment to your author.


End file.
